[15] Mr Dugald Stewart has not neglected to avail himself of this incident, to illustrate his observations on the power which certain perceptions or impressions on the senses possess to awaken associations.--E.
[16] Even so lately as Captain Krusenstern's visit, the number of horned cattle at Saint Peter and Saint Paul's amounted to no more than ten cows and as many young heifers; of course, he remarks, there was no butter, and very little milk. But it is his opinion, that it would be extremely easy to support some hundred head there, as the place abounds in the finest grass. Elsewhere he informs us, that it is calculated there are about six hundred cattle in the whole of Kamtschatka; a number which, for obvious reasons, he thinks may and ought to be increased.--E.
[17] Extraordinary as this may appear, Krascheninikoff, whose account of Kamtschatka, from every thing that I saw, and had an opportunity of comparing it with, seems to me to deserve entire credit, and whose authority I shall, therefore, frequently have recourse to, relates instances of this kind that are much more surprising. "Travelling parties," says he, "are often overtaken with dreadful storms of snow, on the approach of which they drive with the utmost precipitation into the nearest wood, and there are obliged to stay till the tempest, which frequently lasts six or seven days, is over; the dogs remaining all this while quiet and inoffensive; except that sometimes, when prest by hunger, they will devour the reins and the other leathern parts of the harness."--_History and Description of Kamtschatka, by Krascheninikof_.
[18] Captain King does not seem to have heard or inferred any thing as to the danger usually encountered in the summer excursions on the river, from the nature of the vessels employed. This, according to Krusenstern, infinitely more resembles a trough than a boat, being, in fact, the hollow trunk of a tree, and exceedingly apt to be upset by the rapidity of the stream. Thus, he says, scarcely a year passes in which several people are not drowned, both in the Kamtschatka river and the Awatscha; a serious loss any where, no doubt; but in this country, where population is so scanty, and so uncertain, incomparably more important in a political point of view.--E.